Philadelphia has commanded the attention of young, urban-seeking high-tech software engineers, but West Chester is fast emerging as the more family-friendly hub of high-tech innovation thanks to the vision of the upstart business incubator Walnut St. Labs.

“Not to knock Philadelphia, but a lot of times people will move when they start having families,” Founder and CEO Chris Dima said in a recent Daily Local News feature. “But if you start here, you can stay here and grow.”

So far the startup venture has drawn significant backing from global IT player Unisys and influential mentors from the Chester and Delaware County Chapter of SCORE. The CCEDC, Hankin Group, i2n, and Fox Rothschild are also big supports of the lab.

Walnut St. Labs aims to foster new innovations in the county and beyond by providing co-working and meeting space, access to technology, marketing and software development services, ongoing events and training, investment and special projects. And the environment itself has become an attraction for innovators.

“People come to feed off the different kind of energy that’s here,” COO Mary Fisher said in the article.

The company’s investments target “‘pre early-stage’ innovations and then supercharge them with hyper-focused go-to-market strategies, product development roadmap, engineering support, marketing, legal and other back-office support.”

And a unique new prototyping competition with Unisys has propelled Walnut St. Labs to a whole new dimension in its trajectory to become Philly’s suburban high-tech hub.

“We also see a new wave of ideas from innovation labs like Walnut St. Labs, and we want to be a part of that,” Unisys Chief Engineer and Vice President of Engineering and Supply Chain Jim Thompson said in the article. “By combining Unisys’ tradition of innovation with the capabilities of Walnut St. Labs, we can have the best of both worlds.”

Read much more about the growth and vision of West Chester’s Walnut St. Labs in the Daily Local News here. You can also check out our past articles on WSL here.

_______

Top Photo via Pete Bannan—Daily Local News